Our school budget failed at Town Meeting this week, as did the budgets in many other parts of the state.
The “education funding crisis,” was discussed by our local legislators at Town Meeting and by legislators addressing their own communities throughout the state.
But you know what was lacking? Any sense of urgency. Do these lawmakers not understand how potentially devastating education tax increases in all of the ranges that we heard for our own communities will be for some of our neighbors? Keep in mind that our potential increases started at 16.6 to 25.8%, then soared to 30 to 40%, then dropped to 22 to 31.7% with that range representing each town’s Common Level of Appraisal.
Who among us has received cost of living and or a wage increase of 16.6 to 25.8%? Anyone received a wage increase of 30 to 40% to cover education tax increases?
What happens when people can’t afford to pay their property taxes, despite budgeting carefully? If they have savings, they can deplete their savings to pay regular living expenses. If they don’t have savings, they’ll fall behind and incur substantial penalties (8%). The interest on those penalties compounds and people can lose their homes.
Where is the urgency?
We’ve been told that the Legislature is committed to a real overhaul of our education funding system. That won’t help this year and the income sensitivity function of our current system will not be enough to overcome increases that are so high because those payments are based on last year’s tax rates.
We’ve also been told that voting down budgets gives school districts a chance to reduce budgets. “I hope we make some real cuts to our budget,” we were told.
Who has examined the budget in detail and can competently explain what cuts would get our tax increases down to a range of 5 to 10% without decimating our public schools?
Where is the urgency? What does having a Legislature committed to real overhaul mean? Nothing this year, maybe a study committee this summer?
